


long wait

by booksameliad



Series: warmth [1]
Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 02:36:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14415810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksameliad/pseuds/booksameliad
Summary: klaus and duncan admit a certain set of feelings, but it takes awhile before they even think to.





	long wait

it took him until they were falling off the cliff, to realize he loved duncan.

when they were nearly on the edge, he thought of his sisters and his parents, obviously, but when he thought of his only friends, isadora and duncan, he realized the way he felt about duncan wasn’t the same he felt about isadora. he liked isadora, but he didn’t have a crush on her. he wasn’t always thinking about her, wishing he could date her. he did that with duncan.

when he wasn’t worrying about dying, or worrying about his sisters, or wishing that his family and the quagmires weren’t cursed, he thinks about duncan. he thinks about how good he looks. he thinks about how he wants to live with him.

unfortunately, he never would get to tell him, would he? he’s about to die with violet, in this small, cramped caravan, with sunny in the arms of count olaf, and he just, hates it.

he closes his eyes when the caravan plummets off, and he holds violet, and she holds him, and he can hear her crying, and can feel himself crying, but he doesn’t care, because they’re about to die, and all he wants is to live.

he’s still crying, and he still has his eyes closed, and he’s still holding his sisters when he hears a scream and a familiar voice yelling, “it’s the baudelaire's!” he’s still crying, and has his eyes closed, but violet gently pulls his hands off of her as they aren’t moving anymore. and since klaus has nothing to hold onto, he falls to the floor, as his legs are too weak to hold him, a combination of tiredness and anxiety, plus worrying about them dying and what happened to the quagmire’s.

“klaus?” he hears violet whisper to him, but he’s too busy crying, because he just remembered that sunny’s with count olaf and the others, and that one of their parents aren’t alive, and he’s so, so weak.

“violet? klaus?” he hears hector say, and he knows, he knows they’re safe, but he’s too weak, too tired to care. and he knows that since hector is here, the quagmire’s are here, so that means duncan’s here too, but he just doesn’t care. not right now, anyways.

and he still hasn’t stopped crying. he knows he should, because that way his eyes aren’t puffy, but he doesn’t. he just lays on the soft (soft? how?) ground, clenching his fists and crying his eyes and heart out. he hears someone walk over and sit down beside him, but he doesn’t know who it is. he feels them stroking his hair, and slowly, he stops crying, and he feels his glasses slip off his face, onto the ground in front of them, and he falls asleep soon after that, not awake long enough to see if anyone took them, but long enough to feel the stroking stop, and someone drops a cover over him, and then it starts again.

-

when he wakes, it’s with the blanket still over him and someone still sitting beside him, except they’re on wood, in the air, and they’re messing with his hair. he tries not to make any noise, as to not make the person stop, but he accidentally yawns, and the person stops.

klaus brings his arms up and rests his head on them, turned towards the person that's probably been the same person sitting beside him the entire time, (and if it's who he thinks it is, he'll die happy) and falls asleep again, unconsciously reaching a hand out towards the person.

-

duncan takes the hand cautiously, trying his best not to wake klaus up.

"that's his sign that he trusts you." duncan slightly jumps when violet speaks, turning towards her. she walks over, sitting down beside him. "when he falls asleep in front of you, it means that he trusts you to protect him and wake him up. if he reaches a hand out towards you when he sleeps, it means he considers you family, and if he lets you mess with his hair, that means he considers you the bestest friend he's ever had."

duncan sighs, turning to look at her. "how can he expect me to be so good when i couldn't even save him, or you and sunny, when me and isadora left v.f.d. and you guys were stuck with the fire truck?"

"because he likes you duncan. a lot. you're the first kid that he can ever remember being nice to him. all the other ones we've met have been rude to us. nobody at the academy would even think to help us, except for you and isadora. you're one of the few kind people in our like right now, since olivia's dead and the freaks that we thought were nice at the carnival turned on us. and, you're actually helping him more than he cares to admit.

"keep being his friend. god knows he needs it." violet hugged him before standing up, dusting herself off before walking out, closing the door behind her.

duncan turns to look down at klaus, who was still asleep, his glasses laying beside his head. duncan smiled, bringing his hand over to push some of the hair back from klaus' eyes.

god, he's fallen too far and he's in too deep.

-

that room is where he spends most of his days. in between all the planning of how they'll get sunny back to sleepless nights of wondering how he'll ever help klaus, he's exhausted. so, whenever he can, he goes into that room, and sleeps. usually, he keeps a spare blanket and pillow out for klaus to also collapse on, and whenever he wakes up, klaus is always asleep, his left arm wrapped around the pillow, his right reaching out towards duncan, and he never has a cover on top of him. so duncan always puts the blanket on top of him before leaving to do his business, or whatever he wants to do, like staying in the room and reading.

sometimes, when he goes in the room and he isn't exhausted, he'll just sit down and read. he'll read for hours on end, sometimes falling asleep while doing so, and whenever he wakes up, he's always laying on the floor, his head on his pillow and his cover wrapped around him.

and, on rare, rare occasions, he'll go in there and he finds klaus crying, usually when he's awake, trying to be quiet as to not bother anyone, and duncan will quietly walk over and console him, calming him down until he falls asleep.

when that happens, duncan takes out the third black notebook he's gotten since he and isadora left the vile village and goes to the first blank page, and just starts writing. he writes and writes, usually about how much he hates that he's too afraid to admit his feelings, and doesn't stop until he's too drained to continue. after that, he usually pulls his cover and pillow so that he's right beside klaus, and goes to sleep right there.

usually, when he wakes up, klaus hasn't, and he's in a death grip.

duncan remembers what violet told his the other day, about klaus hugging him in his sleep. "sometimes, if you have to help him stop crying, and you sleep near him, you're his new thing to hold for that night. you made him feel comfortable, so, unconsciously, he thinks, I have to make this person feel comfortable."

usually, he just sighs and gets out of klaus grip, but today, he's too tired to even bother, and he just goes right back to sleep.

when he wakes up for the second time, klaus his laying beside him, a book out in front of him as he reads. duncan decides to not let it be known that he's awake, just decides to try and quietly go back to sleep.

somehow, he does, just don't tell him that klaus knew he was awake the entire time.

after a week, they were close to getting sunny, so, so close, when klaus was forced to fight count olaf, and lost, but made it a long fight, so the others could get sunny and run away. obviously, when he fought count olaf, it was a sword fight, and obviously klaus had never been trained for fighting swords, but count olaf had. klaus has never been trained to fight someone taller and stronger than him. klaus had never been trained to treat his injuries, but duncan had.

except, klaus doesn't know that. when they all escape, somehow getting away in the giant air house, klaus limps to the room, laying down and wrapping himself in the thin blanket and shivering in the cold room.

when duncan walks in, that's all he sees, and he sighs, bringing the first aid kit over and setting it beside him as he sits down beside klaus.

"unwrap the blanket, klaus." he sees klaus turn towards him, and he waits for klaus to speak.

"no." the response is muffled, but he clearly heard what he said. duncan sighs. for such an intelligent boy, klaus sure can be dumb sometimes.

"unwrap the blanket, klaus. i need to treat your wounds before they get infected." as he opens the first aid kit, he sees, out of the corner of his eye, klaus kick the blanket off, and he stiffens when he sees all the injuries. how dare count olaf hurt such a kind boy!

"this is gonna sting a bit, alright? if you need to hold onto anything, just grab my arm. i won't mind," he smiles reassuringly at klaus, and klaus starts to smile back, but grimaces instead.

“i can’t complain, anyways,” klaus mumbled, “this is the least bit of pain i’ve felt in the last two weeks.”

duncan frowned, but kept working, cleaning and then bandaging the wound. before klau could even think to stand up, and pulled the blanket back over him. “you need rest. don’t get up unless you need to use the restroom, because i’m scared you’ll reopen a wound, and then i’ll have to clean it again and bandage it again. you understand?’ he turned to look at klaus, but saw that the boy was fast asleep, and the hand was reaching out towards him.

he sighed, smiling as he laid down beside klaus.

god, he’s going to have to admit his feelings soon.

-

klaus is worried he’s messed up his and duncan’s perfectly good relationship. they were just fine as friends. why does he have to keep making heart eyes at duncan? even hector has noticed!

but he can’t keep holding his feelings back. he can’t keep hiding in the room, acting as if he’s asleep when duncan’s in there, reading or sleeping. he can’t keep holding back the urge to pull duncan into the room and admit his feelings, waiting for the answer that he doesn’t like him back.

he’s just too scared to mess up their friendship.

accidentally, he starts avoiding duncan. he’s not doing it on purpose, really! it’s just, he reads when duncan isn’t in the room, and acts like he’s sleeping when duncan is, and it’s, it’s just a really really big mess.

luckily, violet and isadora get it, they really do. and, since they have a knack for solving problems, they have a solution. unfortunately, duncan and klaus won’t like it, which means they can’t tell them. so, they have to carefully plan everything out, and they get everything ready, and when it’s time, the plan starts.

first, violet starts to talk to klaus outside of his and duncan’s room. meanwhile, isadora is asking duncan a question inside. as soon as she walks out, leaving the door wide open, violet tells klaus sorry, and before he can even ask why, she shoves him, hard, into the room, before slamming the door shut and pulling a door up to it on the outside.

“this is for your own good! just admit those feelings and get it over with!” obviously, violet would usually never say those type of sentences, but she seems to do reckless things with isadora once in a while.

klaus’ face turns bright red and as he stares at the door, wondering why his sister would put him through an embarrassing situation like this. he doesn’t dare turn his head towards duncan, because he’s too scared for duncan to see his face and figure out why his sister shouted that, plus why his face is red, and then the friendship will be ruined. forever.

“do you know what i do when i don’t want to talk?” klaus jumps, forgetting duncan was even in the cold, silent room. “i do what i love to do. i write. i fill up the pages in the small black notebook until i’m too drained to write anymore. if i run out of pags, i just get more paper, and i write, and write, and write. it’s how i calm down, usually after i worry about someone or i get in a fight with someone. usually, it’s different people.”

klaus turned around, resting his back against the door as he pulled his knees up and stared at duncan. “what do you do when you can’t get any alone time?”

“i talk to you. have you not noticed how much i talk to you, whether or not you’re listening? talking to you, it always helps me calm down, because you help me in more ways than one.”

“it’s the same for me, almost.” klaus whispers in the quiet room. “you always help me if i’m feeling down, even if you’re not even listening to me, or talking to me. just you being in the room is usually enough.” he swallowed, blinking back tears. “and i think i,” he swallowed, overcome with fear and sadness, “i think i love you,” he whispered to the silent room, save for the breathing and klaus’ voice talking.

klaus stuffed his face in his knees, not wanting to look at duncan in case he was angry at klaus for liking him, since he was a boy.

he heard shuffling, and rustling along the floor, as if something was being dragged, but he didn’t dare look up. he didn’t want to see the hand being brought down across his face, signifying their friendship was over.

instead of a slap, though, he felt a blanket being draped around his shoulders, covering him so that he wouldn’t be as cold as he was. slowly, he lifted his head, and saw duncan sitting in front of him, a sad smile on his face.

“did you think i would slap you?” he asked, and klaus, unable to stop his crying, just nodded yes, and duncan sighed, before leaning in and hugging him.

klaus stiffened, before just letting himself go and wrapping his arms around duncan, crying into his shoulder. duncan doesn’t even seem to mind, just keeps rubbing circles into his back and doing his best to calm him down.

“since you admitted your crush, i think it’s best if i admitted mine,” duncan said after a while, and klaus got ready to be disappointed, “it’s somebody that i’ve met recently, and they’re intelligent. they have a knack for making quick plans, and seem to think poorly of themselves. and i hate it.”

it’s violet. it’s always the better sibling, violet. klaus bitterly think, choking back tears, before he hears duncan’s next words. “and it’s you, klaus. it’s always been you.”

klaus turned to stare at him in shock. “what?”

“you’ve been the person i have a crush on, klaus. you know how they were saying i carved my initials and violets’ initials into the herring? i carved mine and yours, because i’m a hopeless romantic, and violet saved me, and-”

he didn’t get to finish his sentence, as klaus leaned forward and kissed him.

no, it didn’t feel like fireworks were going off in their stomachs. and no, it didn’t feel like the most magical feeling in the world. but, at the same time, it kinda did. it was the best feeling they’d ever felt.

after a few seconds, klaus pulled away, and smiled at duncan.

“guess we’re a couple now, aren’t we?” duncan asked, and laus laughed, smiling at him.

“guess we are.”


End file.
